Sent home

Well, Charli turned 4 and has started wanting nothing to do with her parents. Here is poor, dejected Brian, home early after being sent home from Kelly's school. Previously when Charli and Brian would go to Kelly's preschool, Brian would stay there. This time, he was instructed (by Charli) to just drop her off and go home. *sigh* Soon it's going to be "just drop me off at the corner" and no kussies...

fd&c something or other

Happy birthday Kate! We loved the ice cream cake (especially the green icing)!

a thanksgiving change

This year we had Thanksgiving at Brian's grandmother's place, instead of Naomi coming to Jerry and Donna's as she usually does. She might be moving to a smaller apartment, so she wanted to have us all over while she still had the room for us! It was cozy, but definitely enjoyable, and Charli and Buster had a fine time.

Buster uses the walker

Charli decorates a cake with Kelly and Katy

Buster has a little nap

Big hug for Grandma when we leave

On Friday we went to the farm to cut down our Christmas tree

and here we all are, Christmas tree cut down and happy as clams!

big four

Charli turns 4! 4 4 4!

awesome cake baked and decorated by Kelly

Charli loved playing this with Grandpa. Not so much with Mom, who makes her follow the rules.

Charli Lawler scooted!

a new do

This was a necessity cut. Charli hates having her hair brushed and put up, and it was so long it kept getting in her food. Fixed that! And so cute, too!

He stands

Just now Buster stood up holding onto my knees, then he let go and stood there for a moment, then he put his hands back on my knees, got back down on the floor, and went his way. !!!

Muffin!

At Charli's school they are now learning how to cook! Here she is showing off her handiwork: a muffin! Mmmm yummy!

halftime

The other day Charli told me she was half Yang, half Lawler, half Stevenson, and half macaroni.

inaugural halloween

We've never taken Charli trick or treating in a neighborhood before, probably just because we're too lazy. I don't think there was much going on right around our condo (for kids, I mean - there's a ton of stuff for adults), and certainly no one comes trick or treating at a condo... There were a lot of streets close by where they do trick or treating, but we just never went. Last year we went to Boo at the Zoo with Bella and Nina, and that was fun - especially since Charli had such an awesome costume! (Hm. I would have liked to link to last year's Halloween post right there, but I see we never put one up. We suck. I'll have to do something about that, a year late.)

Last year we moved into the new house right after Halloween - we closed on the house October 29 and moved in November 2. Brian happened to be around the house on Halloween night, and he said it was crazy! There really are a ton of kids in the neighborhood, and the vendors give out candy on Cortland Ave, and a lot of houses on the side streets do too. We are now one of them! Disappointingly for some of the older kids (but happily for many of the parents), we did not give out any candy. We gave instead stickers and tattoos and activities. I had 272 activities and 1200 stickers and tattoos, and we closed up when all we had left was about 100 stickers (not when the kids were done coming by). Zowie!

This is the pumpkin that Charli carved with Nina, sitting on one of the decorations that Brian made out of our plants. I don't know what the plants remains will look like after we take these apart...

Here's a bad picture of Bella's and Charli's costumes. Charli is refusing to wear her trunk, and you can see a little glimpse of Buster's dinosaur outfit. Nina did an awesome job on Bella's costume (Bella made her own hat), but she does that EVERY year. Isn't it more impressive how great Charli's costume turned out, because I suck at this stuff? Look at those ears!

Brian and Buster stayed at the house to give out candy. That's our bowl of stickers and tattoos early in the evening (we let the kids take several of these, and one activity).

Here's Charli enjoying her costume a little bit more, after Sam came to meet us. We had to bend her ears back because the street was so crowded they kept getting knocked off.

This is a side street past where Cortland is busy, and you can see it's still crowded (although not crowded enough to need bent back ears). Cortland itself is a zoo!

Here's a great costume we saw! There was also a dad who went as a TV, with a working screen that showed his face live - it was so cool!

Charli and Bella stood and looked at this guy for several minutes before slowly getting close enough to get candy from him. They were completely thrown off by the third hand!

Here's Buster's costume, courtesy of my mother! I rolled my eyes a bit when I saw it, but it is absolutely Adorable. I just love that tail! Unfortunately, the zipper pull broke off, so alas, it will get no more use, but it only needed to last for one night.

Enjoying the fruits of her labor